John Kruis writes about the method of biblical counseling developed especially by Dr. Jay Adams. This second article further explains the method and answers a criticism of it. Rev. Kruis is pastor of the Christian Reformed Church of Sussex, New Jersey.

Nouthetic counselors also help to correctly identify problems, which are usually sinful attitudes, sinful patterns of behavior or life-style, sinful reactions to life’s difficulties and sinful reactions to the attitudes and behavior of others.

A Common Caricature

Now, please do not accept a caricature of nouthetic counseling at this point. Some have pictured a nouthetic counselor as operating something like this:

He gets counselees into his study or office and lets them tell their story. He then interrogates them (as someone has written, “. . . conducts a witch hunt”). Hastily he identifies the sin problem(s) and.lets the counselees know in no uncertain terms that it is sin. The counselor picks up his Bible and gives them a heavy dose of Bible texts as a cure-all. He promptly tells them exactly what they now ought to do . . .”

“Simplistic! Biblicistic! Naive!” they cry. Nonsense! Ridiculous! This ought to be recognized for what it is: a caricature of the nouthetic method of counseling. Such people are either uninformed, ill-informed or governed by prejudice.

Need of Careful Diagnosis

How does a nouthetic counselor go about helping to identify problems? He gathers data in each weekly counseling session—very carefully and thoroughly.1 He gathers data extensively, covering the various areas of life, and intensively, covering in depth those areas in which he discovers a problem. From the counselees he obtains data on the present situation, present attitudes, habits, life style and response patterns. He works hard at getting a clear and accurate picture of how the counselees are functioning in their relationships in the home, the church, among their neighbors, etc. He obtains data weekly on how they are handling life’s problems and the progress they are making in solving them. The areas of concentration depend, of course, on the problems which are discovered.

As the data is gathered about the present, the counselor also goes back into the past. He does so, not only in the initial counseling session, but also whenever it will help to get a clearer picture of a problem being worked on or a new one that comes to light in the counseling process. This is essential for getting at the root causes of unsolved problems. Dr. Adams explains it this way, “It is important to review the past thoroughly enough to establish the fact that non-biblical response patterns are at the root of one’s immediate problems. It is necessary to get a general picture of the shape of the response patterns which the client has developed to meet life’s difficulties. He needs to be shown the preconditioning problem at the root of the particular problem which he has presented. The weeds will grow again unless they are unrooted.”2

Helping a Family With Problems

The effectiveness of using this method to help identify problems is well demonstrated in Donna’s case. Donna called one morning to ask if I would “please come over as soon as possible.” The presentation problem? Her husband (nominal Roman Catholic) had been insisting for several days that, after eight years of ups and downs in their marriage, he had enough. He was throwing in the towel. Either she had to move out or he would do so. That morning he had informed her that since she had refused to move he would soon be leaving. There would be no more discussion on the matter. The decision was final.

Since Ben was not a home that morning the data gathering was limited to Donna’s sins in their marriage, seeking to determine wherein she had contributed to the breakdown of their marriage. Data was gathered extensively on such matters as her faithfulness as a marriage partner and homemaker, her manner of communication, her way of handling problems in their marriage and her relationship to the Lord. In this way we were able to identify some of the problems already in the first counseling session. It was clear that her attitude and behavior had much to do with the marriage breakdown. We began that day to work for change on Donna’s part. The result was that Ben did not leave the home as he had threatened to do.

Donna continued with counseling. As we worked on change in each specific problem area of her life, more data was gathered weekly on her current attitudes and behavior and the progress she was making. But, also as problem areas were brought to light we would go into her past his tory in relationship to these matters. In this way we were able to identify her destructive preconditioning problems. For example, it became clear that Donna was an unforgiving person. She habitually got revenge on her husband when he displeased her in any way. She was an habitual nagger and complainer, one who seldom expressed appreciation or gave a compliment. A self-centered person. Obviously Donna had much changing to do. And she really worked on it! Already in the fourth counseling session she said, “The week went great; I can hardly believe it . . . I don’t know if this will continue. He seems baffled.” She added, “I feel better about myself too. How long did you say it would take for this to become habit?” It was the thorough data gathering on the past, as well as the present, that enabled us to correctly identify the problems. This, coupled with weekly counsel (and homework assignments—to be explained later), brought speedy results.

Escape from Depression

Take also the case of Jim Smith. Jim sought help because of severe “depression.” He was so depressed that he had begun to miss work occasionally. And neither he nor his wife could see any good reason for his depression. In the first counseling session I began to probe systematically into various areas of his life—tapped on the walls for studs. He was in good physical health. His marriage relationship was good. They were having no special problems with their children. The relationship with other relatives, neighbors and church members was favorable. What about his job? That was going alright too. But he did say, “What really gets me is those guys who get sick and then get paid for doing nothing . . . I have to work hard for all I get.” The halo data3, along with what he said, indicated that I had perhaps hit the stud. So, after extensive data gathering, I returned to this matter. I asked, “What about those people on welfare?” “Yeah, that eats me up too. It really gets to me.” With much emotion Jim went on to tell of several other parties who were on welfare, while they have nice houses, cars, boats, etc. “They have it a lot better than we do, but I have to work for my money,” he added. This indicated some of his performance problems: dwelling on what other people have and how many people apparently get free hand-outs while he has to work for his money. More data gathering on the past made it clear that the root causes of his depression, the preconditioning problems, were a severe case of envy and covetousness, coupled with a non-Christian view of work. As we worked on these problems in succeeding counseling sessions the change was dramatic. By the end of three weeks his depression was gone. However, I continued to work with him for several weeks, helping him to put off the sins of envy and covetousness and to develop a Christian view of work. Again, it was the thorough data gathering each week on both the present and the past that played an important role in the accurate identification of his problems and led to the solutions.

Identifying Problems

It sometimes happens that perplexing problems remain unidentified, and consequently unsolved for several weeks because the needed data has not been brought to light. That can happen because the counselor fails to be as thorough as he should and/or because the counselees carefully keep certain data under cover. This happened in the case of George and Pam. They (recent converts to the Christian faith) had come for help because Dan, her fifteen year old son, was almost continually belligerent and was planning to go to Denver to live with his father. (This was the second marriage for both George and Pam.) Extensive data gathering revealed that unsolved problems had been piling up in their marriage, creating an unhappy home atmosphere. This was largely responsible for Dan‘s belligerent attitude. Good progress was made in problem solving in the first four weeks of counseling as we worked on the total home situation. But severe problems remained in the sex life of the parents, creating havoc in their marriage relationship. As I reflected on this I began to realize that I had failed to get sufficient data on and to deal thoroughly with one important matter. They had lived together for over two years before getting married (prior to their conversion) because George’s divorce had not come through. More intensive data gathering revealed that Pam was still feeling “dirty” and was resenting the way George had continued to insist on the sinful living arrangements prior to their marriage. They were counseled to get all that rubbish cleared away. This had to be confessed before God. They also had to confess to each other and forgive each other. An amazing change soon took place! Once again thorough, intensive data gathering in the one specific area was the key factor in identifying a trouble· some problem and led to a speedy solution.

Hurting to Help

“But,” you ask, “Don’t some people, at least, object to such data gathering, that kind of probing into their personal, marital and family life?” Perhaps some people do. But so far I’ve had no one object to this. One party did begin to show some uneasiness. But she was soon put at ease as its purpose and value were explained to her.

What happens when counselors identify the problem as sinful attitudes, sinful behavior, sinful reaction to difficult situations or sinful ways of handling life’s problems? Doesn’t this turn people off? Turn them away? Doesn’t this discourage them? No! My experience has confirmed that Jay Adams, and others with him, are right –instead of turning them away, this almost always encourages them. In fact, I have had only one party that did not return for weekly counseling after the first session.4 Of course, counselees are also shown from the Scriptures that when they repent of their sin and seek God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ they will be free of their guilt. They are also shown that they can change, and that will lead to a solution of their problems.

1 Adams’ Manual pp. 252–293. To me, this section on data gathering alone is worth much more than the cost of the book.

2 Competent To Counsel p. 151. See also pp. 148–150 for his explanation of the “Three Dimensions of Problems.”

3 CF. Adams’ Manual p. 257f.

4 This was a young man, 19 years old, who was awaiting sentencing for arson, had admitted that he regularly smoked pot, and had just learned that he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant. Yet he wanted no one to tell him what he ought to do. He wanted to manage his own life.